Computer Simulation of Biodiesel Production By Hydro-esterification

Artigo:

ABSTRACT –The conventional production method of this biofuel, by transesterification in two stages, chemical reaction and product separation, has several disadvantages. Biodiesel production by hydro-esterification reaction from fatty matter with has attracted much attention because of its many advantages, but available technology still requires distinct steps for reaction and separation. This work presents computational simulations of a multi-step process of soybean oil biodiesel production by hydro-esterification. For the hydrolysis step, a packed bed reactor (PBR) was chosen. For the esterification step, a reactive distillation column (RDC) is used, with reaction and separation in the same piece of equipment. The simulation results show that the methodology used is consistent and sensitivity analyses suggest that conversions close to 99% are possible.